We only had a short week at home after I returned from the U.S. before the Columbus Day weekend arrived. It’s a four-day weekend for us, so as soon as everyone was home from work and school on Thursday, we dropped off the dogs at the kennel and headed to the airport. Our destination was Puglia, Italy! Our travel was uneventful. We arrived in Bari shortly after midnight, picked up our rental car, went straight to the airport hotel, and promptly fell asleep.
We all slept soundly until almost check-out time at 9. We opened the curtains and discovered we had a fantastic view of the airport runway and the Adriatic Sea. After watching a few planes land, we packed up and headed out.
We stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast before continuing on to Matera. One of my Italian cousins previously told me this was the most beautiful city in Italy, and it’s a James Bond filming location, so it was at the top of our list.
Matera has been continuously inhabited pretty much forever. Scientists are currently arguing over which Paleolithic century the city dates back to. Still, the most common guess is the 10th millennium BC, making it one of the oldest settlements in the world. The geography is made up of tufa rock and full of caves. Like Cappadocia, many houses, stores, and churches are carved right into the cliffs and hillsides.
When we arrived, we headed straight to the Belvedere (scenic lookout point) Piazza Giovanni Pascale to take in the beautiful view. We could see all the way across the medieval cliffside town and into the surrounding stony mountains. A guitarist played classic Italian songs, so the atmosphere was really set. The best part was when a joyful group of Italian retirees came over to join the guitarist in singing and dancing to his music. It was so cute!
We walked around the old town and found that the Italian chocolate festival was happening that weekend. We checked out the chocolate and then visited the Palombaro Lungo, ancient cisterns right underneath the market square. The cisterns were okay, but maybe not so jokingly; some family members suggested they were tired of visiting ancient cisterns since we saw the huge ones in Istanbul. Luckily, the visit was only €6 for us to enter and lasted only 12 minutes. I think I’ll remove that type of attraction from future itineraries. 🤣
Just outside the Palombaro Lungo was the Belvedere Luigi Guerricchio, where we could take more pictures of Matera’s beautiful vistas from another angle.
From there, we continued our walk through the medieval city towards the Chiesa di Santa Maria de Idris, a medieval church built onto a rocky mount overlooking the city. The views were even better from here, and you could see some of the scenery from the James Bond Movie: No Time to Die.
After taking many photos, we hiked back down and stopped for drinks at a cafe. The kids had frozen lemonades, and I had an Aperol Spritz. We were only a little hungry, so Ryan got a small orecchiette pasta, which is native to this region, and Matt and I had a mozzarella Caprese. The fresh mozzarella is also native to the Puglia region, and we both thought it was the best we had ever had.
We returned to the car and started traveling toward our hotel in Polignano a Mare. We stopped in Altamura for its famous bread on a friend’s recommendation. Every restaurant we saw in Matera and Altamura even had a loaf of bread out front on display. We found the renowned bakery, Antico Forno Santa Catarina, which has been in business since 1391. They still use the same brick oven from that era. Sadly, by the time we arrived at 4 p.m., all the bread on the shelves had already been “reserved.” We did buy some cookies, though, and continued the journey to our rented apartment.
When we arrived at our apartment, we found it was actually the guest house of a large villa right on the Adriatic Sea. The house was so cute, and we were hosted by the sweetest old man, Pasquale.
After a short rest, Matt and I were hungry, but the kids wanted to hang out at the apartment, so Matt and I went out to dinner in Polignano a Mare.
After walking around and taking photos, we chose a little restaurant with Fiorentina Steaks on the menu. It was so good and so cheap! Our entire meal, including drinks and dessert, was only €75! Afterward, we returned to our apartment for a movie and Phase 10 with the kids.
We got up early on Saturday as our original plan had been to visit Alberello. However, while drinking my coffee, I reviewed my notes for the trip and remembered that I had wanted to visit a dairy farm to see how fresh mozzarella cheese is made. I took a chance and sent a WhatsApp message to one of the farms I had noted, and after a bit of back-and-forth, they were able to arrange a last-minute private tour!
We jumped into the car and headed to the farm, Masseria Fragnite, near the city of Ceglie Messapica.
We started the tour in the barnyard, where the cows were being fed. We heard about how they are cared for and about their diets before also getting a peek into the milking room.
After the milking room, we were taken to the cheese aging room, where we learned about the different types of cheeses made here besides mozzarella, how they are made, and how they are aged.
Then, we put on our hairnets and foot coverings to enter the cheese-making room.
First, we were given a demonstration of how the mozzarella is made. Then, we all took turns attempting to make fresh mozzarella balls. It’s not as easy as it looks, but Matt made some pretty perfect ones. Ryans were definitely on the other end of the spectrum. 😂
After we were done making cheese, they brought us to the picnic area, where they supplied us with a picnic basket and a bottle of homemade wine. Inside the picnic basket was an entire charcuterie board of all the different types of cheeses made on the farm, prosciutto ham, Puglian bread, and fig cookies. They also gave us all of the mozzarella and burrata cheeses we had made; it was so much food! There was so much food, we didn’t need lunch after we left the farm and had a huge box of cheese to take home with us.
After our charcuterie picnic lunch, we headed to Ostuni, which is called “La Citta Bianca,” or, ‘The White City.’
Our first stop was a gelateria, where we got gelato and enjoyed the views all the way to the Adriatic Sea while we ate. Then we walked further up into the city where we found a spritz bar and enjoyed an aperitif and some snacks.
After Ostuni, we had enough time to return to our apartment and take a nap. We had dinner at a restaurant called La Terrazza in Polignano a Mare. While Matt and I had pizza, Ryan ordered lobster spaghetti, and Brooklyn had a steak. They both said it was the best meal they’ve ever had. While I knew that was a stretch, I do know that they both really enjoyed it. Again, the meal was so affordable—even with drinks and a dessert—it was less than €100.
After dinner, we headed to our friends Beth and Austin’s rented apartment to share some wine and all of our leftover cheese. They also had lots of chocolate from the chocolate fest in Matera. The apartment had a small pool and hot tub, so the kids hung out and played together while the adults shared a couple of bottles of wine.
Sunday, we slept in a little and then got out the door around 10 a.m. to drive to Alberobello. It’s widely recommended to arrive early because of the busloads of tourists in Alberobello every day there to see its famous cone-shaped houses, called Trulli. This advice would have been well-heeded if we had gotten there earlier because it was so crowded! That did not take away from the enjoyment for us, though. We made our first stop at the panoramic viewpoint of the city to get some pictures and then wandered around the city, checking it out.
We had lunch right on the main square, and it was less than €50 for the whole family. It was so affordable despite being a bustling tourist hotspot!
After Alberobello, we went back to the apartment. Brooklyn and I changed into bathing suits and went out to sit on the huge rocks by the water. The water was not that cold, but it was too cold for me to swim. Brooklyn got in while I read a book from the rocks. Then, we both went in to join Matt and Ryan for a nap.
After our naps, I rushed the family back out of the apartment to head into Polignano a Mare because I wanted to take pictures in the daylight. There wasn’t much sunlight left in the day, so I only got a few before the sun started setting, but it turned into one of the most beautiful sunsets we’ve ever seen. There were so many shades of orange, pink, and purple! As the sun continued to set, I dragged the family from viewpoint to viewpoint, trying to capture photos from every angle, and it really paid off!
After sunset, we had dinner at the very same restaurant as the night before. The kids wanted to repeat the “best dinner ever” again, and it didn’t disappoint. Funnily, the waiter from the night before remembered the mess Ryan made with his dinner and even brought him a bib. 🤣
Luckily, we didn’t have an early flight on Monday, so we could sleep in a little, pack the apartment up in a not-so-rushed manner, and then head to the airport. We returned to Stuttgart by 7, picked up the dogs, and were home by 8. We have some special visitors coming next week, so we spent the little time we had left over the weekend preparing for their arrival.
Gilcrests Abroad 